XML may very well be a nice way to lay out data so that it can easily be gobbled up by other systems, if there is such a need, but as for using it as the holy grail of file formats for every thing? I don't think so!
Microsoft's plans for XAML really make me feel sick! As if.NET wasn't bad and bloated enough, now they're forcing this XAML crap down everyone's throats? At best, I see XML as a decent replacement for.ini or.csv files - zip! That's it!
Let's not create a mountain out of a mole hill by turning everything into XML!
Ever tried storing an ampersand in an XML file???? Do you want to have to type escape sequences as part of your everyday life from now on? I know I DON'T!!!!
I love Linux, too, and dream about the day when I don't have to fiddle with mindless minutiae like this. As much as I hate The Beast of Redmond, Windows XP's user experience is plain, simple, and straight forward. For starters, clicking Start, Settings, Control Panel, Mouse is a little more accessible than clicking KDE Button, System, YaST, Hardware, Mouse (from memory). "YaST" might make SuSE developers feel all gooey inside, but it's not what Joe User is going to go looking for.
Oh, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. I should have known better than to give Linux a chance again. Apparently I'm supposed to know all that crap you ramble on about just to move my mouse?
And you say Windows' USB mouse support is flaky? Are you on drugs, perhaps? Just because XP doesn't support a Compaq Presario 1700 series mouse, you say it's flaky? My mouse is a Logitech Optical USB - which is a little more popular than the pucilanimous compaq mouse you've dug up to support your flaky argument.
I am a Windows user "because stuff just works", but I have fond memories of Debian in the 2.0 and 2.2 kernel days, and install the latest Linux every now and then to see if it's worth switching to yet. Every time, though, I'm usually disappointed with basic things like mice not working, which drives me back to Windows.
Bruce Perens and company are going to have to retract their wishes about Linux being destined for the world's desktops if everyone has to go frigging with those settings you mentioned.
I'll be sure to check that next time I boot SuSE up, however, I did see it successfully start a hotplugging something or other on boot up; one of the things on that line was USB.
To install SuSE 9.0 I trashed Fedora, which didn't have any problems with this particular mouse. The last time I recompiled a kernel it was a fiasco, so I don't think I'm going to try that approach again. I'm sure HID must be there if the USB mouse does work, but decides to lock up after a while.
Um, how can my mouse be faulty when it works beautifully under XP and has done so since I plugged it into the USB port on that great day almost a year ago? Yeah, sure, my mouse must definitely be faulty...
I just installed SuSE 9 and I must say I was very impressed... right up until the point that the mouse (which worked fine during install) didn't work on the second boot, then wouldn't work when KDE started. Had to start YaST to reconfigure it but had to reboot before it would work. THEN the mouse just stopped working after I clicked the apply button after choosing the icq2 icon scheme in gnomeicu.
I'm guessing USB mouse support still hasn't made it's way into Linux in a robust form yet?
This is pretty bad - so bad, in fact, that I'm now back in Windows XP because it, at least, knows how to understand what is now an old thing like USB mice!
I'll use the real alternatives that others have posted to this article instead. I've been bitten once too many times with that Real filth to risk polluting my machine with it again...
I clicked on the big, orange, "FREE DOWNLOAD" 14 day trial button (god knows why?) and I get through to the very end and I am expected to enter my credit card details, for a FREE trial?
Firstly, I don't know what possessed me to even think of trying your evil software again, but the deed is done - there's no going back.
Secondly, I saw NO mention of having to hand over my credit card number until AFTER I enter all sorts of information you DON'T need to know and that I will NEVER give you.
Finally, in the spirit of forgiveness, I should actually be *thankful* to Real Networks for actually asking for the credit card number because I pressed ALT F4 the moment I saw it. So, you see, Real Networks have saved me from themselves - a fate worse than death:-) Thanks, guys!
The U.S. are probably more dangerous, if not more so, than Iran. How many countries has the U.S. invaded and interfered in? A whole lot more than Iran, my friend! Which of the following nations have dropped nuclear bombs on innocent civilians?
1) Iran 2) The United States of America
I think the answer is "2":) so, you see, Iran is a far more safer country than your "angelic" United States.
So, Anonymous Coward, I have read your article and thought about it, just as you wanted. Unlike yourself, though, I am not afraid to put my name to these comments.
My brother has a WinFast TV2000 XP which works fine under Windows (dunno about Linux), but the very fact that it has a "Visually delightful new interface" is keeping me from buying one.
The card is actually very good, but why on earth do these dumb manufacturers have to clothe their software in shitty skins and give the customer no option to remove it? We can all thank winamp for spreading this disease!
My brother opened reshack or some such program and found that there is actually a normal-enough looking interface underneath that horrid skin, so you'd think it wouldn't be much effort to include a check-box in the options screen that says "Do not use skin". For some reason, these idiotic Taiwanese dimwits must think that skinned software is very lucky and golden, or something...
I personally prefer KDE over gnome, but if Linux is ever going to make it into the corporate world in decent-sized rollouts, some hard decisions are going to have to be made. The Gnome interface looks less sophisticated than KDE, but I know for darn sure that I don't want to ask my users "are you using KDE or Gnome" and have them replying "I dunno", then having to figure out the difference. Yes, I *realise* that IT departments would set the standard and possibly would uninstall one or the other, but does anybody care about Windows not having a plethora of other desktop-systems?
As much as I bag the shit out of Microsoft for their products, their Windows interface is consistent and you know what you're dealing with. Linux will eventually be all the better for it if KDE and Gnome can just ditch one in favour of the other and focus their collective development efforts on one, kick-arse, desktop environment. I used to use WindowMaker before we had desktop environments, but I don't lose sleep at night because I switched to KDE.
You people might think that Gnome vs KDE are holy wars that must be fought, but it is this division that Microsoft are tickled-pink to witness. Ever heard of the saying "Divide, and conquer" (or should that be "Divide, and konquer"?
Get with the program you religious zealots and do something that benefits Linux for a change! At the end of the day, I couldn't care less which desktop environment wins out, just as long as one of those frigging things is a clear winner.
This is one of the main reasons why I still keep booting into Windows XP for a lot of things - because things are consistent and they interoperate seamlessly without me having to run memory-hogging applications like klipper just so the many different clipboard protocols appear to work "seamlessly"
I wrote one in plain-old-Perl-CGI and we've been using it for almost four years. During that time our head office has gone from using Quantum (excellent telnet-based software) to Remedy (ultra-bloaty-and-interface-diseased evilware).
This type of software is the kind that no off-the-shelf product can do 100% the way you want it to, so what's wrong with writing it yourself and being a wheel-reinventer? If the other wheels available all resemble dodecagons, then a custom-built perfect circle is a far better solution!
Konqueror is much better than GMC IMHO, and more configurable than Nautilus, but some updates to the file-browser part of Konqueror would be nice. In particular, something emulating the functionality of Windoze's listview control would be nice. I hate having to view in large icon mode just to draw boxes around files to select them. When in detailed list view, selecting a file selects the whole row when it should ideally only select the filename in the first column.
This might sound petty but this particular aspect when compared with Windoze Explorer makes the Konqueror file browser feel almost like winfile.exe when it comes to selecting files.
Just my 2cents worth. I'm still going to use KDE regardless, though, because Nautilus is slow and has very few options for configuring it.
This is my question almost exactly! I updated my system to the latest potato using apt yesterday and was astounded to find it's still using Gnome 1.0.55. I was expecting to see Gnome 1.2, which has been around for some time now
To use anything relatively recent in the Debian world you have to run the "unstable" distribution. I don't like this entirely because I'm potentially sacrificing my system just to run software that everyone else is running
Compiling Gnome myself is also not an option since I don't have days at hand to do it. If I knew enough about the process I'd volunteer myself as a "frozen/stable" package maintainer for the "current" Gnome releases...
The string of Draconian internet bills passed this year can only translate into voter dissatisfaction. Having voted for the Liberal/National party myself I won't be making the same mistake twice come next election!
In April this year I e-mailed my local member, Stuart St. Clair, National Party, to express my displeasure regarding the internet censorship legislation and received the following reply:
"If your decision to switch your vote from the National Party to the Labor is based on this sort of legislation, then you are better off with your friends in the Labor Party."
I don't know if an MP could be more out of touch than this! Australians aren't going to sit back and be told what they can and can't access on their own computers. The present government will be sorry when they're sitting in opposition next year!
If you're using Active Server Pages, then I would suggest that it might be your problem. I've seen ASP's fall over constantly, and not from programming error, but because the dumb-ass ASP engine falls over all the time; has anyone seen the infamous:
A trappable error occurred in an external object?
This isually means the "World Wide Web Publishing Service" has fallen over (like IIS does only too well).
I've converted over to Perl under NT and it's a dream compared to ASP's or compiled CGI programs!
Though, if I had my way, we'd be using Oracle or MySQL under Linux instead of that lame excuse for an SQL Server from Microsoft - it's so dumb that it won't let you create a relationship between to tables within different "databases" on the same server! Thanks Microsoft!
So you're saying that simply because nature is so intricate that it all couldn't happen? The fact that there are squillions of stars in the Universe is enough evidence for me to accept that they form naturally.
There's no need to bring an imaginary ethereal being into the discussion to justify that which simpletons have difficulty understanding!
All to often religious people fall back on the same old argument: "God designed it that way" - well I've yet to see any of your gods, and until such time that I do, we can only assume these are natural occurrences.
No one can prove the existence of any god. Stars are there and form naturally until otherwise proven - so deal with it!
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XML may very well be a nice way to lay out data so that it can easily be gobbled up by other systems, if there is such a need, but as for using it as the holy grail of file formats for every thing? I don't think so!
.NET wasn't bad and bloated enough, now they're forcing this XAML crap down everyone's throats? At best, I see XML as a decent replacement for .ini or .csv files - zip! That's it!
Microsoft's plans for XAML really make me feel sick! As if
Let's not create a mountain out of a mole hill by turning everything into XML!
Ever tried storing an ampersand in an XML file???? Do you want to have to type escape sequences as part of your everyday life from now on? I know I DON'T!!!!
I love Linux, too, and dream about the day when I don't have to fiddle with mindless minutiae like this. As much as I hate The Beast of Redmond, Windows XP's user experience is plain, simple, and straight forward. For starters, clicking Start, Settings, Control Panel, Mouse is a little more accessible than clicking KDE Button, System, YaST, Hardware, Mouse (from memory). "YaST" might make SuSE developers feel all gooey inside, but it's not what Joe User is going to go looking for.
What? No editing config files, checking symlinks, or compiling HID support into one's kernel? This Windows XP thing might just catch on ;-)
Oh, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault. I should have known better than to give Linux a chance again. Apparently I'm supposed to know all that crap you ramble on about just to move my mouse?
And you say Windows' USB mouse support is flaky? Are you on drugs, perhaps? Just because XP doesn't support a Compaq Presario 1700 series mouse, you say it's flaky? My mouse is a Logitech Optical USB - which is a little more popular than the pucilanimous compaq mouse you've dug up to support your flaky argument.
I am a Windows user "because stuff just works", but I have fond memories of Debian in the 2.0 and 2.2 kernel days, and install the latest Linux every now and then to see if it's worth switching to yet. Every time, though, I'm usually disappointed with basic things like mice not working, which drives me back to Windows.
Bruce Perens and company are going to have to retract their wishes about Linux being destined for the world's desktops if everyone has to go frigging with those settings you mentioned.
Forgive me, but it's been a while since I went renaming mice to suit my fancy. Just how do I rename it to "Kmouse"?
I'll be sure to check that next time I boot SuSE up, however, I did see it successfully start a hotplugging something or other on boot up; one of the things on that line was USB.
To install SuSE 9.0 I trashed Fedora, which didn't have any problems with this particular mouse. The last time I recompiled a kernel it was a fiasco, so I don't think I'm going to try that approach again. I'm sure HID must be there if the USB mouse does work, but decides to lock up after a while.
9.0 doesn't exactly bear the hallmarks of a beta numbering scheme - at least, not to me!
Mine's a Logitec optical USB mouse, too.
Um, how can my mouse be faulty when it works beautifully under XP and has done so since I plugged it into the USB port on that great day almost a year ago? Yeah, sure, my mouse must definitely be faulty...
I just installed SuSE 9 and I must say I was very impressed... right up until the point that the mouse (which worked fine during install) didn't work on the second boot, then wouldn't work when KDE started. Had to start YaST to reconfigure it but had to reboot before it would work. THEN the mouse just stopped working after I clicked the apply button after choosing the icq2 icon scheme in gnomeicu.
I'm guessing USB mouse support still hasn't made it's way into Linux in a robust form yet?
This is pretty bad - so bad, in fact, that I'm now back in Windows XP because it, at least, knows how to understand what is now an old thing like USB mice!
I'll use the real alternatives that others have posted to this article instead. I've been bitten once too many times with that Real filth to risk polluting my machine with it again...
I clicked on the big, orange, "FREE DOWNLOAD" 14 day trial button (god knows why?) and I get through to the very end and I am expected to enter my credit card details, for a FREE trial?
:-) Thanks, guys!
Firstly, I don't know what possessed me to even think of trying your evil software again, but the deed is done - there's no going back.
Secondly, I saw NO mention of having to hand over my credit card number until AFTER I enter all sorts of information you DON'T need to know and that I will NEVER give you.
Finally, in the spirit of forgiveness, I should actually be *thankful* to Real Networks for actually asking for the credit card number because I pressed ALT F4 the moment I saw it. So, you see, Real Networks have saved me from themselves - a fate worse than death
The U.S. are probably more dangerous, if not more so, than Iran. How many countries has the U.S. invaded and interfered in? A whole lot more than Iran, my friend! Which of the following nations have dropped nuclear bombs on innocent civilians?
:) so, you see, Iran is a far more safer country than your "angelic" United States.
1) Iran
2) The United States of America
I think the answer is "2"
So, Anonymous Coward, I have read your article and thought about it, just as you wanted. Unlike yourself, though, I am not afraid to put my name to these comments.
My brother has a WinFast TV2000 XP which works fine under Windows (dunno about Linux), but the very fact that it has a "Visually delightful new interface" is keeping me from buying one.
The card is actually very good, but why on earth do these dumb manufacturers have to clothe their software in shitty skins and give the customer no option to remove it? We can all thank winamp for spreading this disease!
My brother opened reshack or some such program and found that there is actually a normal-enough looking interface underneath that horrid skin, so you'd think it wouldn't be much effort to include a check-box in the options screen that says "Do not use skin". For some reason, these idiotic Taiwanese dimwits must think that skinned software is very lucky and golden, or something...
I personally prefer KDE over gnome, but if Linux is ever going to make it into the corporate world in decent-sized rollouts, some hard decisions are going to have to be made. The Gnome interface looks less sophisticated than KDE, but I know for darn sure that I don't want to ask my users "are you using KDE or Gnome" and have them replying "I dunno", then having to figure out the difference. Yes, I *realise* that IT departments would set the standard and possibly would uninstall one or the other, but does anybody care about Windows not having a plethora of other desktop-systems?
As much as I bag the shit out of Microsoft for their products, their Windows interface is consistent and you know what you're dealing with. Linux will eventually be all the better for it if KDE and Gnome can just ditch one in favour of the other and focus their collective development efforts on one, kick-arse, desktop environment. I used to use WindowMaker before we had desktop environments, but I don't lose sleep at night because I switched to KDE.
You people might think that Gnome vs KDE are holy wars that must be fought, but it is this division that Microsoft are tickled-pink to witness. Ever heard of the saying "Divide, and conquer" (or should that be "Divide, and konquer"?
Get with the program you religious zealots and do something that benefits Linux for a change! At the end of the day, I couldn't care less which desktop environment wins out, just as long as one of those frigging things is a clear winner.
This is one of the main reasons why I still keep booting into Windows XP for a lot of things - because things are consistent and they interoperate seamlessly without me having to run memory-hogging applications like klipper just so the many different clipboard protocols appear to work "seamlessly"
I wrote one in plain-old-Perl-CGI and we've been using it for almost four years. During that time our head office has gone from using Quantum (excellent telnet-based software) to Remedy (ultra-bloaty-and-interface-diseased evilware).
This type of software is the kind that no off-the-shelf product can do 100% the way you want it to, so what's wrong with writing it yourself and being a wheel-reinventer? If the other wheels available all resemble dodecagons, then a custom-built perfect circle is a far better solution!
Konqueror is much better than GMC IMHO, and more configurable than Nautilus, but some updates to the file-browser part of Konqueror would be nice. In particular, something emulating the functionality of Windoze's listview control would be nice. I hate having to view in large icon mode just to draw boxes around files to select them. When in detailed list view, selecting a file selects the whole row when it should ideally only select the filename in the first column.
This might sound petty but this particular aspect when compared with Windoze Explorer makes the Konqueror file browser feel almost like winfile.exe when it comes to selecting files.
Just my 2cents worth. I'm still going to use KDE regardless, though, because Nautilus is slow and has very few options for configuring it.
To use anything relatively recent in the Debian world you have to run the "unstable" distribution. I don't like this entirely because I'm potentially sacrificing my system just to run software that everyone else is running
Compiling Gnome myself is also not an option since I don't have days at hand to do it. If I knew enough about the process I'd volunteer myself as a "frozen/stable" package maintainer for the "current" Gnome releases...
Looks like some dude hacked their site and usb.org have cleaned it up before I got there!
And I thought I was just stupid (I know that's leaving myself open for flames there, but what the hey?)
The string of Draconian internet bills passed this year can only translate into voter dissatisfaction. Having voted for the Liberal/National party myself I won't be making the same mistake twice come next election!
In April this year I e-mailed my local member, Stuart St. Clair, National Party, to express my displeasure regarding the internet censorship legislation and received the following reply:
"If your decision to switch your vote from the National Party to the Labor is based on this sort of legislation, then you are better off with your friends in the Labor Party."
I don't know if an MP could be more out of touch than this! Australians aren't going to sit back and be told what they can and can't access on their own computers. The present government will be sorry when they're sitting in opposition next year!
Just couldn't resist, could you?
A trappable error occurred in an external object?
This isually means the "World Wide Web Publishing Service" has fallen over (like IIS does only too well).
I've converted over to Perl under NT and it's a dream compared to ASP's or compiled CGI programs!
Though, if I had my way, we'd be using Oracle or MySQL under Linux instead of that lame excuse for an SQL Server from Microsoft - it's so dumb that it won't let you create a relationship between to tables within different "databases" on the same server! Thanks Microsoft!
I couldn't have said it any better myself!
:-)
See my post to your original argument - I'll just have to overlook your poor spelling/grammar and deal with your original claims.
How can you claim to be involved in an intelligent discussion when a primary-school child could spell better than you?
Haven't you heard of spell checkers?
So you're saying that simply because nature is so intricate that it all couldn't happen? The fact that there are squillions of stars in the Universe is enough evidence for me to accept that they form naturally.
There's no need to bring an imaginary ethereal being into the discussion to justify that which simpletons have difficulty understanding!
All to often religious people fall back on the same old argument: "God designed it that way" - well I've yet to see any of your gods, and until such time that I do, we can only assume these are natural occurrences.
No one can prove the existence of any god. Stars are there and form naturally until otherwise proven - so deal with it!